LNG Supply Chain

Yokogawa’s commitment to innovation in LNG projects worldwide dates back to the 1970s. With its extensive experience and comprehensive portfolio of solutions, Yokogawa has what it takes to achieve operational excellence in the LNG supply chain.

66 carriers use Yokogawa's DCS. Yokogawa’s industrial experience provides unique solutions to meet the needs of the marine industry. For several decades, Yokogawa has been delivering IAS to a number of LNG carriers worldwide. Long-term partnership with Yokogawa provides the highest total value of ownership with full lifecycle support.

Integrating new and proven technologies and improving HSE performance

Customer Challenge

With over 45 years of LNG project experience, Yokogawa has significant engineering expertise. We know how to replace control systems without interrupting city gas production, and can ensure a seamless migration path and supply a full range of implementation services.

The scope of investment has expanded beyond conventional megaprojects to include small-scale projects and offshore facilities. For such undertakings, new and proven technologies must be integrated and improvements must be attained in health, safety, and environment (HSE) performance.

Our Solutions

With its in-depth expertise in the LNG supply chain, Yokogawa can propose and implement new solutions for a wider range of HSE issues. Yokogawa has solutions that enable gapless LNG leak detection monitoring and the monitoring and detection of intrusions at an early stage. Yokogawa can also assist with the integration of proven onshore technologies on floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), floating LNG (FLNG) facilities, and LNG vessels.

Enabling Technology

Responding quickly and accurately to shifts in demand

Customer Challenge

With over 45 years of LNG project experience, Yokogawa has significant engineering expertise. We know how to replace control systems without interrupting city gas production, and can ensure a seamless migration path and supply a full range of implementation services.

The main challenge in the LNG supply chain is responding quickly and accurately to shifts in demand. This is required both by regulations and contractual commitments to customers. Before any LNG facility enters commercial operation, it is important to identify essential plant KPIs and establish standardized procedures for manual intervention.

Our Solutions

Loading, unloading, cool-down, refrigerant cycle (RC) makeup, and other non-routine operations can all have a major impact on the stability of an LNG facility. Yokogawa solutions based on our long experience in the LNG field can help you smoothly execute these major operations. Exapilot, an intuitive and easy to use navigation tool, provides operators with the cues they need to smoothly execute non-routine operations. Yokogawa’s Exaquantum plant information management system can acquire process data from a Distributed Control System (DCS), transform it to essential KPIs and execute automated instantaneous reporting on KPIs to DCS as necessary.

Enabling Technology

Production Control System: CENTUM VP
The single integrated control and safety system (ICSS) database simplifies engineering. With graphics, alarm windows, and system status screens all having the same look and feel, operation is also easier.

Dealing with variations in gas composition

Customer Challenge

With over 45 years of LNG project experience, Yokogawa has significant engineering expertise. We know how to replace control systems without interrupting city gas production, and can ensure a seamless migration path and supply a full range of implementation services.

Gas from different fields often varies in composition, and this variance is expected to increase over the next few decades. Consequently, receiving terminals will need to apply best practices and the impact of such variation will have to be dealt with throughout the plant lifecycle.

Our Solutions

Yokogawa’s Advanced Process Control (APC) solutions play an indispensable role in the liquefaction and regasification processes. In the liquefaction process, our APC solutions optimize the interaction between the heat exchanger (HE) and the refrigerant cycle (RC) for efficient heat-stress-free operation. In regasification, Yokogawa's APC solutions allow optimal allocation and nomination based on the Wobbe index value and the boil-off gas (BOG) volume and required time, thereby preventing the production of off-specification gas. In addition, full emulation by an Integrated Control and Safety System (ICSS) and high-fidelity process simulation (Operator Training System: OTS) are necessary not only to measure the effect of changing operation, but also to contribute to HSE overall evaluation.

Production Control System: CENTUM VP

The single Integrated Control and Safety System (ICSS) database simplifies engineering. With graphics, alarm windows, and system status screens all having the same look and feel, operation is also easier.

Safety Instrumented System: ProSafe-RS

High availability of the ProSafe safety management system enables truly integrated solutions with Safety Integrity Level 1-4 (SIL1-4) certification. Regarding connectivity with upstream processes including wellheads and pipelines, we have achieved connectivity between ProSafe-RS, STARDOM, and the FAST/TOOLS SCADA system over a single network that is based on the Vnet/IP real-time control bus and dedicated to upstream processes. As a result, FAST/TOOLS can now monitor both the STARDOM and ProSafe-RS systems in an integrated manner.

Field Instruments

“Install and Forget” digital field instruments deliver stable and accurate process measurement with low-cost installation, near zero maintenance and intelligent self-diagnostics. As a true leader in fieldbus technology, Yokogawa brought the world’s first FOUNDATION Fieldbus™ enabled device to market and has since developed a complete range of FOUNDATION Fieldbus™ instrumentation.

In the event of a gas line shut down, gas supply must be maintained for a period of time with the use of LNG stored in road tankers. Each tanker must have its pressure monitored to prevent an over pressure situation arising.

Recently, several ARC Advisory Group analysts and management team members had a chance to sit down with the new Yokogawa President and COO, Mr. Takashi Nishijima, and several other top Yokogawa executives to discuss the company's burgeoning presence in the worldwide upstream and midstream oil & gas industry.

Over the past decade, companies have been using unconventional drilling technology to extract gas and liquid from the readily available shale formations in North America. As the industry gains experience, the production rates continue to rise based on better use of technology to locate resources and to decrease the time from exploration to production.

Martin te Lintelo, Yokogawa Europe B.V., The Netherlands, discusses high level control system design for LNG receiving terminals. As demand for LNG increases worldwide, players face seemingly conflicting challenges. On one hand, they must expand capacity in different regions, make the business and production as agile and adaptive as possible, and improve operational efficiency.

The LNG sector presents challenges for the automation supplier, particularly in the implementation of automation systems for regasification terminals. Yokogawa Europe's business development manager, upstream oil and gas Martin te Lintelo looks at the handling of the potential automation-related problem areas and opportunities.

References

Yokogawa South Africa was appointed to design, supply and commission the Integrated Control and Safety System (ICSS) as well as the overall Terminal Management System at Sunrise Energy’s liquid petroleum gas (LPG) Import Terminal, the largest on- and offshore open-access LPG import terminal facility in Africa. Yokogawa’s Terminal Management System, Terminal Logistic Suite VP (TLSVP), was designed and developed to meet the exacting operational demands and logistic needs in terminals. Yokogawa’s experienced engineering resources ensured the project was successfully delivered, enabling Sunrise Energy to provide accurate mass balances and efficient terminal operations to its customers.